Just wrote my Friday column about possible replacements for high-profile openings around the country. I led with a late report I received Thursday afternoon from the website AuburnUndercover. It’s usually very favorable to Auburn but this time it’s reporting that Auburn president Jay Gogue has told his Board of Trustees that he’s prepared to replace football coach Gene Chizik.

That wasn’t the surprise. Everyone knows no school in the SEC tolerates a winless league record, even two seasons removed from a national title.

What shocked me was the name Gogue mentioned as a replacement: Shawn Watson. He’s done a fine job as offensive coordinator in lifting Louisville to a 9-0 record and No. 9 ranking. He was also a masterful coordinator in Colorado’s last glory years from 1999-2005. But the SEC is not in the business of training assistants to be head coaches.

Will Muschamp has settled in at Florida and Dan Mullen has excelled at Mississippi State but they were long-time coordinators in big-time, successful programs that won national titles. Muschamp was such a high-profile defensive coordinator at Texas that coach Mack Brown named him head coach in waiting.

Watson, who did wonders at Colorado, is only in his second year at Louisville after Bo Pelini let him go at Nebraska. Watson’s a great guy and selfishly I hope he gets hired. But he’d better be ready. As his successors in Boulder have learned, it’s tough to learn on the job.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.